Most Annoying Behaviors

Writing the other day about my irritation with obnoxious airline passengers – coming up soon are two columns full of people’s reactions -- gave me an idea for a blog list: The 10 Most Annoying Behaviors.

I'm sure you have your own pet peeves, and a top 10 list like this can barely scratch the surface, so feel free to contribute your own in the Comments. What really ticks you off?

I suspect I’m forgetting some good ones, but here’s a start, in no particular order. It’s appropriate that more than one of these involves drivers, since that’s where people tend to annoy me most:

1. People who immediately put their airline seats back as far as they’ll go and leave them that way for the whole flight, oblivious to the people behind them.

2. People who won’t turn right on red unless you honk at them.

3. Obnoxious smokers, including people who smoke cigars at crowded Musikfest concerts and smokers who dump their butts wherever they happen to be standing or walking.

4. People (mostly in Allentown) who double park, especially when there are spaces available nearby.

5. Drunk people at public events.

6. Idiots who give Philadelphia fans a bad name, usually because they also fit No. 5 and are abusive about it.

7. People who talk at the movies.

8. Shoppers who take too many items into restricted checkout lines at the grocery store.

9. People who slowly trudge or stop in the middle of the aisle in the grocery store or other places where people want to pass. Move over!

10. Along similar lines: Drivers who sit in the left-hand lane when they’re not passing anyone.

Current Comments

1) Drivers who don't give the universal "thank you wave" when I stop to let you merge or give you the right of way.

2) Overzealous youth sports coaches and overzealous parents at youth games. Especially Little League. There's no reason to harrass the umpire. It's not the World Series.

3) Lazy shoppers who are incapable of returning the cart to the cart corral.

Happy Easter, everybody!

Posted By: Susan | Mar 29, 2013 12:36:59 PM

1. People merging BEHIND me who pull out before me then cut me off!!

2. People who throw their trash from their car windows into my yard.

3. And on a similar note, neighbors who don't contain their trash on trash pick-up day and it blows into my yard. There have been times I've filled multiple trash bags with stuff I've picked up!!

Posted By: Liz Trinisewski | Mar 29, 2013 1:47:16 PM

1)People who use their middle finger to point at things (I guess I annoy myself, because when they do that; I use my middle finger to point at whatever their pointing at for verification; I don't want to be left out on the subliminal slander)

2)Waitstaff that sound like TV commercials when they greet you after you sit down in a restaurant, fake attitudes; creme de la creme annoying. makes me want to slap the corporate loyalty facade right out of them.

3)The words Conservative and Liberal as being used to politically define an actual person, or even when people define themselves as one or the other. In the Political arena, the right and left memes change like a fart in the wind and so do the semantics of said adjectives. It may be socially acceptable, but it's still annoying.

6)Large groups of over perfumed people annoy me, they also make me sneeze

7)Financial Capitalism annoys me... can you say "derivative" somethings wrong when a Civilization has to sell its water supply to make ends meet; while the CEO's of Corporations not so far away make millions by the simple ticking of the clock.

8)The Red Scare annoys me...see #7, the Green Scare annoys to no end as well....meaning the push of anti-environmental propaganda..........such as the NO GREEN SLIME site Ive seen on the MC....google NO GREEN SLIME.

9)When people say that America should be run like a business, then demonize Socialism.

10)When politicians want to tax heavy breathing.

11)When America blames its poor for its deficit; and forgets its war theatre

Posted By: Spookytruth | Mar 29, 2013 5:03:32 PM

1 My current favorite annoyance is while standing in line the person in back of me using a cell phone, blasts his/her conversation in my ear. And then there's the person in the supermarket on the cell phone asking which size can or box they should buy. Some of these people have executive jobs and make decisions that affect all of us every day! It's scary!

Oh, and by the way, I really don't want to hear your personal problems in my ear, I have enough of my own.

2. Ad after ad after ad on my computer, TV, radio, etc.

3. Girls and women who wear such low-cut tops and jeans with everything hanging out. Little kids see you too, you know!

There are more, but it's Easter Sunday; I'm trying to be nice!

Posted By: hatu13 | Mar 31, 2013 8:07:36 AM

Thanks, Gail. That reninds of another: People who wear obscene t-shirts in places where there are lots of kids, like amusement parks.

Posted By: bill white | Mar 31, 2013 4:18:59 PM

People in a restaurant, airplane, bus or any close quartered environment, that speak at a level on their cell phones like they are the only one's there.

Posted By: Mark Smith | Mar 31, 2013 10:11:38 PM

Spookytruth, is there anything that doesn't annoy you?

What annoys me most is people on Facebook who cut and paste clever and inspirational sayings all day long.
Actually, 95% of what is on Facebook really annoys me. Do people with teenage kids not realize how bad it looks when every post they make is about how much they enjoy alcohol and how they can't wait to drink, every night!

Posted By: Jeff Hager | Apr 1, 2013 12:13:00 PM

I'm agreeing with most of these annoyances. Clearly some people are more annoyable than others.

Posted By: Bill White | Apr 1, 2013 12:16:34 PM

Actually Im a very patient person for those with common sense and decency, but when people are pretentious and malicious; its every ones job to call them out.

and actually; it takes allot to annoy me; I should have put this on the list as #1...my biggest pet peeve, are other peoples pet peeves.....

Posted By: Spookytruth | Apr 1, 2013 3:04:28 PM

#1 How about drivers who take their grand old time sitting in their parked cars in a parking spot prior to pulling out and letting YOU have the spot you have been patiently waiting for? They put on lipstick, do their hair, light a cigarette, pull out their phone to chat or text, even after they see you waiting for the spot, on a busy, crowded shopping day, no less!

#2 When you hold open the door for someone and they don't even thank you! I have taught my 12 y/o son manners and I am proud to say he is the first to rush ahead to open up a door for incoming or outgoing shoppers; I am appalled at how many grown adults rudely do not thank him, especially how many tweens/teens seem to lack manners these days.

#3 People that stand so close to you in a line at a store, bank, etc...so close that you feel their breath on your neck or they are practically leaning into you. Step back! I find this most disconcerting when I am working at my job, at the front desk check-in at a busy medical practice, and patients rudely stand next to, not behind, the patient who stands in front of me that I am currently greeting and checking in. We try and be as discreet as we can when asking sometimes private information and it's only for me and the check in patient to hear, not the rude jerk pushing ahead in line.

#4 In addition to #3, if I am checking you into our office, hand you forms to fill out and politely ask you to 'have a seat to fill out the forms', please do so. Please don't curse at me and refuse to sit; there is a reason I am asking you to sit....there is an army of people behind you waiting for their turn to be greeted and seated. I don't make the rules, I just work there. ;)

#5 When my Morning Call delivery person either throws the paper down onto my wet porch in rainy weather (not in a bag), onto my porch on a very windy day (not in a bag) or decides to throw my "bagged" paper somewhere in my landscaping. I really dislike going on a witch hunt at 6am, in a robe and armed with a flashlight while my Keurig is heating up. :)

Bill, I can agree with a number of your annoying behaviors but I must comment on the first one that you had listed. I try to be courteous of airline passengers that sit behind me and I usually ask if they're going to use a laptop during the flight. I have inquired to the airlines about the space located behind each seat and who owns the rights to that space during a flight. I was informed that the passenger sitting in the seat in front of you owns that space and has the right to recline their seats when directed by the flight attendant. I believe the key word is courteous. What gets under my skin is when airline travelers recline their seats when the plane is being boarded. The makes it very difficult for other travelers to get into their seats. Just an FYI to all airline travelers who feel that the space in front of them is their space. It's not.

Posted By: MGR | Apr 7, 2013 10:49:14 AM

1. Being forced to type with one finger, i.e. texting and IPAD.
2. Getting interrupted constantly by those who think my story can't possibly be as fascinating as their's!
3. Facebook and Twitter excessives; this is not reality, get a life! And I don't mean watching reality TV, it's not reality!
4. Health clinics who don't make it clear as to whether your problem belongs under "emergency" or simply "urgent care".
5. Lunch partners who don't talk to each other, unless it's through their cell phones.
6. SUV drivers who persist in trying to park with one hand, the other holding their phone.
7. Businesses who won't or can't hire real people to answer your most pressing questions.
8. Pennsylvania who doesn't seem anxious to replace our unsafe bridges.
9. Restaurants who require a 20% dinner tip even if the service was bad.
10.The fact that my annoyance tolerance is way off the scales!

Posted By: janet | Apr 8, 2013 11:10:55 AM

MGR: There's no question people have the right to recline their seats, since the airlines give them the option. I still would argue that it's inconsiderate, given how little leg room there is.
It's been bumped by other topics, but I have a two-part column coming with responses on each side of that issue.

Posted By: Bill White | Apr 8, 2013 11:17:00 AM

Because this was printed in Sunday's paper with the Best of the Blogs, I'm getting a lot of new comments via email. I'm debating whether to post them here (presumably they're coming from non-blog people) or run a column about them. I think people like this stuff, so I may go the latter route and include some of the comments on here as well.

Posted By: Bill White | Apr 8, 2013 11:18:13 AM

I immediately thought this would make an excellent column

Posted By: Janet | Apr 9, 2013 1:17:27 PM

1. Drivers (usually in black/dark cars) who do NOT turn on their headlights when it's rainy, foggy, snowy, and otherwise hard to see. If the weather is bad enough to turn on your wipers, then it's bad enough for lights dammit!!!!
And that's the reason I flashed my lights at you, as a courtesy. Instead of giving me the finger, why don't you just turn them on?

2. People who don't scoop their dogs poop. Yes, your dog is cute, but it's not special enough for the rest of the world to have to step in its poo.

3. On the same note, people at the dog parks who don't deal with their super adorable aggressive wonderdogs. I don't care that "It's just the way he plays" when he's attacking and biting the other dogs. It's more than annoying, it's dangerous.

4. Oh my God, it's a 4 way stop, not an SAT test. If I wave you on, DON'T wave me on...just go, with my best wishes!

5. Tailgaters. Tailgaters. Tailgaters. If you're late, you're late. Is it really worth getting into or causing an accident? I'm not gonna drive any faster; on the contrary, I'm gonna slow down until you get a clue.

Posted By: Hagenmary | Apr 10, 2013 1:50:19 PM

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